Did you start writing later in life?

So often, I've heard authors talk about being bookworms or extraordinary storytellers as children. Some have dreamed of being published or being a writer at a young age. Although I like reading, I didn't start writing regularly until later in life, so I wondered if that was true for anyone here?

I'm 26 and am only now actually deciding to take this writing thing seriously after 12 years of talking about it and coming up with new story ideas. Granted I'm still young, but I wasn't writing completed manuscripts when I was in my early teens.

But yeah, there are plenty of authors who didn't start writing/publishing until later in life. James Herriot's first book, Blossom Come Home, wasn't published until 1969 and he was in his mid-50s by that point.

Often it's like that because either the 'writing bug' didn't bite them until later in life, or they wanted to wait until they had a firm foundation on their career (aka, day job) before they start pounding away at the keys.

I'm 26 and am only now actually deciding to take this writing thing seriously after 12 years of talking about it and coming up with new story ideas. Granted I'm still young, but I wasn't writing completed manuscripts when I was in my early teens.

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That makes us two of almost-matching age, myself being 25, also being serious about writing lately.

The title of the post is something personal the way I understand it. I read a lot about authors who got published around my age and always wondered
where they got the literary fodder, how much they must have read etc. On the other hand, there are those who started to write in their forties, fifties etc. It's a double-edged sword.
I go like "Jee, I'll be one hell of a writer when I'm fifty." but on the other hand, I laso go like "Phew, I've got a hell of a lot of time till I turn fifty, so I don't need to push myself too
hard." The result may be that I don't write anything in the upcomming five years. I don't want it to end that way, of course. It's still a personal quest to find the time and the will
grit to write. The fact that many ppl pulled it off in the older age gives me hope.

Funny that I take everybody for as old as I am around here. It's a funny preconception, subcounscious even...but I can't seem to get rid of it.
And sometimes I get necessarily blown by the linguistic cadence of some of the contributing members and marvel at their writing skills

That makes us two of almost-matching age, myself being 25, also being serious about writing lately.

The title of the post is something personal the way I understand it. I read a lot about authors who got published around my age and always wondered
where they got the literary fodder, how much they must have read etc. On the other hand, there are those who started to write in their forties, fifties etc. It's a double-edged sword.
I go like "Jee, I'll be one hell of a writer when I'm fifty." but on the other hand, I laso go like "Phew, I've got a hell of a lot of time till I turn fifty, so I don't need to push myself too
hard." The result may be that I don't write anything in the upcomming five years. I don't want it to end that way, of course. It's still a personal quest to find the time and the will
grit to write. The fact that many ppl pulled it off in the older age gives me hope.

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OK, this is seriously creeping me out. That's exactly how I feel as well. On the one hand, I'm amazed and kind of inspired when I see writers much younger than I am making it. On the other hand, when I see writers much older than I am only now getting serious about writing, I'm filled with relief, like the pressure's been taken off a bit.

So often, I've heard authors talk about being bookworms or extraordinary storytellers as children. Some have dreamed of being published or being a writer at a young age. Although I like reading, I didn't start writing regularly until later in life, so I wondered if that was true for anyone here?

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Hi Edam,

I never started writing seriously until much later in life nor did I have much time to read in my youth due to a grueling work schedule. Once I semi-retired and worked freelance for a website (marketing and content) I was able to focus on my own passion for writing, especially poetry.

I started writing at 12...or 13...ish, so I have been at it for a while. I had more free time to write while going through school than I do now. Unfortunately, I have never had the ambition to be published or to write for a living. It just happens to be a hobby and past time that stuck. Although, all the writing did made me excel above my peers in school when it came to language arts, writing, and literature.

I never had a desire/calling/feeling when I was a kid to write.
I'm an abstract artist as well and I've wasted tons of my life believing two lies.

1. Since I can't draw 'realistic' therefore I can't be an artist.
2. Since I didn't do well in English class and am dyslexic, therefore I can't ever write.

I wish I could get all of those years back!

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Sometimes I wish I could rewind the clock 12 years so I could make the smart decision of writing rather than talking about it (I don't care if it was crappy fan-fictions, at least it would've been something.) I'm beginning to accept that it can't happen, forgiving myself for my own stupidity and moving forward. Sometimes you just gotta stop beating the crap out of yourself for your own mistakes, y'know? That's just as wasteful as the former.

I've been told all my life that I have a vivid imagination and am good with words. But, up until a few years ago, I worked in computer security. That took up a lot of time with none left over for a hobby. A few years ago, I became disabled. I am limited as to how long I can sit or stand. But, I can lay down for awhile and write as I'm doing it. So, now I'm spending time doing that.

I wrote a 72-page-long story in primary school, inspired by then-pridigious Christopher Paolini, truly mesmerized by the fact that a teenage - my metaphorical kin in this regard- is capable of constructing a universe of his own. It was such a strong motivational drive that I managed the impossible from today's point of view. Though the story is crap on many levels, it DOES have the magic I've never since manageed to instill into anything written.

Sometimes I wish I could rewind the clock 12 years so I could make the smart decision of writing rather than talking about it (I don't care if it was crappy fan-fictions, at least it would've been something.) I'm beginning to accept that it can't happen, forgiving myself for my own stupidity and moving forward. Sometimes you just gotta stop beating the crap out of yourself for your own mistakes, y'know? That's just as wasteful as the former.

I personally started writing around eight. I never did it compulsively like lots of authors say they did. I would get an occasional itch to write, and so I would. I probably finished my first novel at around 12 (around 60,000 words), but then went from 12 to 18 without writing much of anything. This was in part because I fell extremely ill, and didn't do anything over those six years. Now at 18 I'm beginning to get serious, and actually want to write.

I know this isn't what you were asking, but I've seen others share so I went ahead with it.

The first time I wrote seriously - something I tried to plan and actually make sure everything makes sense and did edits etc on - I was 19 or 20. That first novel of mine is still going unfortunately but I've been writing since I was 8 or 9 years old - first it was mostly fanfic and comics in Chinese. Then it was illustrated prose in bad English. I handwrote 97 pages of a fantasy story completely stolen off of The Borrowers when I was 10. Then it was straight up prose I wrote on the computer. I always finished them all but few of them made good sense lol. Loved every moment though. Dabbled in doing Manga in Chinese again in between. Stories got longer and longer, from 30 pages to 50 to 100 until I no longer finished any of my projects.

Then I stopped writing when I was about 17, 18. Started my WIP when I was 19, 20, stopped again for several years. Started again at 22 I think.

Now, I have a collaborated dystopian romance debut (self-pubbed), still working on my blasted first love of a fantasy novel (maybe the 4th time I've written from scratch) and just started a very exciting new WIP that's a sci-fi thriller (using the same character as in my debut but different world and story - kinda a spin-off)